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Thursday, August 21, 2014

Dining Room--Before

Now that I have time to do more than nurse babies and change diapers (our twins just turned nine months old!!), I've been itching to do something about our dining room. Itching. So I hope this "before" will soon be an after--or at least an "in progress."

You may recall that this room is a rather shocking shade of pink. It has a beautiful picture window--the only window that lets you see straight into the house from the road--and in the evening when we're eating dinner the pink literally glows out into the dusk. Neighbors can't help but slow down and gawk at us while they drive by.

We've had paint chips sitting on the desk for a while now, and we've decided to ask Keith's dad to bring us the wallpaper remover next time we see him. So we're hoping to get started on this very soon--if not this weekend, then the next. Ideally, I would like to have everything done by the end of September so we can have friends over for a Michaelmas goose. :)

I imagine that the layout will stay the same for now. It's very bits-and-pieces; furniture that doesn't have a home anywhere else lives in here. Someday I'd like to get a used buffet or china cabinet and refinish it. After we paint, I'm hoping to hang some sort of shelving for my teacups, and put a little more thought into what goes on the walls and where.

Keith really dislikes our chandeliers (we also have one in the living room), so we're going to be taking this one down and replacing it with a drum-shade pendant. Eventually we'll replace the sconces too, or else just get rid of them. And then there's this switch plate.

It's pretty, but very ... feminine, for a house full of boys. ;) And it really doesn't go with the wallpaper at all ... bronze with pink?

Eventually I think we also need to do something more substantial about the windows, but I'm not sure what. We like the natural light and truthfully, I'm not that concerned about privacy since we live on a very quiet street. But they just look kind of under-dressed, don't they? Or am I overanalyzing? The curtains are from Ikea--inexpensive and very pretty.

Michael has his own little corner. :) Both chairs are cracked from adult men sitting on them, but he doesn't seem to mind!

So why do you want to refinish some furniture? Is there a unique look you want it to have? If at all possible, I'd urge you to try to find what you want in good shape, on Craigslist. Have you ever stripped furniture before? It is probably Tom's and my LEAST FAVORITE DIY thing to do ever ever ever ever. It's terrible. DON'T DO IT if you don't have to!!

Hey, if you're getting rid of that decorative circle on the ceiling around the chandelier, I'll take it!

Almost all the light switch plates in our house had pictures of beaches, lighthouses, or seagulls. I'm slowly changing them out for plain white ones (which cost less than a buck).

How fun! That pink is CRAZY! And those windows are amazing! If you hang curtains flanking them (basically covering the wall to the side and only a few inches of window), you can still have all the light but the coziness of curtains too! And a drum pendant would look amazing in there but please don't get rid of that chandelier! Maybe it would gussy up your master or something? :)